An Outsider’s Look At Southern Seminary and Religious Life In Louisville – Podcast #9

Let’s face it – most of us live in a Baptist bubble. It gets worse when you work full-time in a local church and spend your only off day holed up at Southern Seminary. So I jumped at the chance to interview the not-so-evangelical religion reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal. Peter Smith is a writer the CJ and also has a blog on their website titled Faith & Works. He knows his subject well. We met on campus late in October to talk about the religious scene in Louisville and record this podcast. Some of his observations might surprise our normal Said at Southern readers. I learned a great deal from the conversation and I trust you will too. Here is a short list of topics:

How do you define Christianity?

Describe the religious landscape in Louisville?

Why are the Evangelical groups getting stronger while Catholics and Mainline Protestants are closing churches?

What do outsiders think about Southern Seminary?

No, this is not becoming an ecumenical podcast. But why not challenge ourselves to talk with smart people both inside and outside our camp? I’d love to get your feedback on the podcast. Feel free to write out your reactions on your own blog and leave a link in our comment section.

Here’s Peter’s description from his CJ blog:

Peter Smith has covered religion for The Courier-Journal since 2000. He’ll be blogging about religion and spirituality and how they intersect with our ethics, our work, our schools, our government and other areas of our lives.

He has more than 20 years of experience as a journalist and also worked on the “God beat” as a correspondent for Religion News Service in North America and Europe, where he wrote about papal trips and the revival of religion in the former communist bloc.

7 Responses to An Outsider’s Look At Southern Seminary and Religious Life In Louisville – Podcast #9

Thanks Tony for doing this. I am pleasantly surprised. Call me a liberal or whatever, but more and more, I hate the Baptist bubble and have found Peter’s articles interesting and informative at least in the past. I look forward to listening.

Just an excellent podcast, Tony. Kudos! I enjoy interacting with those outside of our “Baptist bubble” as you say. This was a very enlightening interview on many fronts. I look forward to many more listens.

Thanks for the podcast brother. As Dr. Moore alluded to in one of his classes, one of the greatest testimonies to the return to biblical fidelity of the seminary is the fact that some in the community are upset that we’ve stopped training social workers and started training preachers. The world doesn’t need more social workers, it needs more Kingdom workers – who seek Kingdom justice rather than social justice. We mustn’t forget the healing and feeding that Jesus commanded, but we must also remember that it was JESUS who commanded it — for His glory, and in accordance with His will.

I’m so glad you did this interview! It’s good to hear from those outside our circles. It helps us know how we are perceived by others. Furthermore, it reminds us that we are not the center of the universe – or the center of God’s Kingdom.